


Scott.exe

by Notsalony



Category: Teen Wolf (TV), Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-05-14 18:17:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5753413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsalony/pseuds/Notsalony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In their digital universe, Scott and his friends cope with viruses, users, games, and data issues.  Never underestimate how much a good data plan can cost you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Press Start

**Author's Note:**

> So I some how came up with a world that’s one part tron, one part reboot, one part teen wolf and six parts WTF.

A digital screen of words scrolls on a virtual screen in mid air slowly going over what progress has been typed into it.

<<< Start of Line >>>

??.??.1976 - The constructions of computers, and programs gives rise to the settlement of virtual space, later known as the Grid, which over time gave rise to newer programs.

07.06.1982 - The user Kevin Flynn stumbles into the Grid and does battle with the help of program Tron.exe against the MCP of ENCOM and liberates the Grid from their control.

04.19.1986 - The User Kevin Flynn leads the programs to sector 1091, and together with Clu.exe and Tron.exe, The User founds C.City_v1.0a on the Grid.

12.03.1988 - Signals indicate that there are other programs existing outside the Grid, and make they’re way to C.City_v1.0a where they are discovered to be the Iso, Isomorphic programs that were not created by any known user. The Iso are greeted with open arms and are integrated into the population of C.City_v1.0a.

06.20.1989 - Clu, having decided that the Iso are an affront to perfection, and his programming, exterminates every Iso he can find and stages a coup, trapping The User on the Grid.

09.15.1989 - Tron attacks Clu and is injured, he takes on a Cyrus.exe as a companion and teaches him to transform into the first Renegade. This results in Cyrus’ eventual imprisonment by Tron to prevent him from unleashing an EMP to wipe out the Grid.

11.13.1991 - Tron discovers Beck.exe and enlists him in his attempts to free the Grid and C.City_v1.1c from Clu. Beck becomes the new Renegade and fights his way through the forces of Clu to try to free the Grid but is ultimately stopped as Tron is infected and taken over by Clu, becoming renamed to Rinzler. Beck was later lost and the Uprising was crushed.

11.30.2010 - Sam Flynn discovers his father’s lab in the back of his arcade and is trapped in the Grid, hunted by Clu and Rinzler Sam eventually finds his father and with his help escapes the Grid with Quorra, they went on to revitalize both ENCOM and the Arcade.

03.12.2015 - Sam and Quorra Flynn reenter the Grid and renew the uprising with the help of Tron, and ultimately Beck, over throwing and erasing Clu and freeing C.City_v2.0.

??.??.2987 - Following the laws legalizing digital citizens as full fledged citizens and recognizing C.City_v4.003c as an independent nation, the world leaders agreed to allow all stored internet files of users to be catalog and run through a system to create fully sentient programs for every human on the planet who had passed away. And the digitization of all living humans.

07.04.3791 - The last non digital human dies on Earth, relegating the entirety of the human race into digital format survived by self sustaining nanites that have turned several key systems into power and data management system.

14.61.4882 - The colony of C.City1_v0.1 is founded in the undefined planes of the digital wilderness. Founded by the neo iso colonists, as a means of ensuring that the iso culture was never again threatened by the preprogrammed digizens of the grid.

14.63.4882 - Colony C.City1_v0.1 is renamed CS1_v1.0 by the population that now reaches 2,200 from the original 12 colonists. And accident earlier that day that destroy the data pipe line from the two cities isolated CS1_v1.0 from the hub and resorting to finding ways to make their rations last for longer, the colonists stumbled across hyper time, allowing whole centuries worth of time to pass internally to the city from the rest of the grid. Before the end of the day, CS1_v1.0 was a fully independent construct no longer requiring aid from the hub.

14.67.4882 - CS1_v9.73f restores the data pipe line and begins exporting technology and services to C.City_v5.2 restoring communications but making the two cities equal in importance. This would eventually lead to the war of 4921 between the cities that resulted in the deletion of the pipe line which was only recently rebuilt in 19.12.5570, and the establishment of satellite offices of each city in the other.

<<< End of Line >>>

Scott snored loudly as he woke himself up, looking at the report he’d compiled and passed out while working on. Waving his hand over his data disk, it’s faint blue glow one of the few light sources in his room. The text window closed and revealed a clock.

91.18.5596 // 06.05.2011 | 3:22:16:07:45:09 am.   ‘Great.’ Scott thought to himself. He hated these long nights of working on home work for his classes. But it was all he could do to get them done and then have time to go into sleep mode for a few hours before having to get back up for classes. Waving his hand he went back to the menu and filed his homework in on the class server before signing out. Time to get some sleep. He tapped his data disk and put it on lock mode. It’s light dimmed as it went silent, the only light in the room now his circular electric blue icon on his left peck.

At it’s center was a square made of two triangular shapes, the square, like the circle, bisected through the horizontal middle splitting it into a two toned icon, of navy blue and electric blue, it’s semi transparent structure showing layers of circuit patterns under the exterior. Scott had been sitting bare chested in just his sleep shorts, a pair of black shorts with electric blue circuit patterns on the sides, that were in line with the ones on his actual body, while he worked. Yawning to himself again he tapped his icon and brought up a menu, lowering the ambient light that his circuits and icon put out. In the dim light he made his way to bed and set his alarm before drifting off to sleep.

<<< entering sleep mode >>>

Scott was holding a baseball bat, screaming at an empty space. He felt himself talking, but all he heard was a buzz but nothing was said back to him. But he kept reacting like he was hearing something. He followed someone, speaking in buzzes as he approached a glitched bit of memory, he kept getting hints of something blue... If he kept looking he’d swear it was a jeep...

<<< sleep mode ended >>>

Scott all but fell out of bed, his data disk powering up and his icon and circuits powering back up to full ambient light. Frowning to himself he looked at the record of his dream log and noted the errors. He wasn’t sure where the dream had come from. He knew he’d never experienced, anything like that before. Maybe it was his user. People had dreams from their users sometimes, didn’t they? Maybe his user had simply been insane and screamed a thin air for no reason.

Scott sat up and frowned. He wasn’t sure why he felt alone and empty just then. He blindly tapped his data disk and scrolled through his apps till he found the vid window. Opening it up he dialed his step brother.

“Isaac.” Scott yawned.

“whaa.” Isaac rolled over and sat up, his hair going every where while his icon pulsed, his sleep mode still half engaged.

“We need to get up for school.” Scott gave a mirthless chuckle before getting up and the window followed him. “I’m going to call you back if you don’t get up in just a bit.” Scott closed the window to a vague wave of Isaac’s arm. He stretched and tapped his icon, the shorts vanished leaving a series of circuit patterns that run the length of his legs and arms as well as all across his back visible on his bare skin as a dull grey blue color. He slowly went into the shower stall and tapped the keypad till the liquid energy cascaded down his body, turning around so that the water touched all of his skin, slowly bringing his circuit pattern up to a steady glowing sky blue color.

Most programs simply got power from being on the grid, and never underwent the lower power mode that Scott and his family endured, because they lived on the outer edge of the city, in one of the poorer neighborhoods. His father had left long ago to seek advancement in the data core, but his mother being a repair program hadn’t had the money to keep them in a data center nearer to the best part of the grid, so they’d moved out here to a family home and survived by piping in liquid energy to power themselves till they could make it to the grid to log on and power up through out the day. Scott always hated talking about how live on the edge of the grid made him feel. Especially to his would be girlfriend. Her father being a Firewall and all, he took a dim view of their budding relationship and tried to keep Alison away from Scott at all times.

Scott looked at all his circuits he could see to make sure they were powered up, he didn’t want to walk into the grid with graying circuits and show off how poor he really was. Satisfied with their coloring he tapped his icon and started daily diagnostics. You grow up with a repair program for a mother you learn that your better off doing daily diagnostics then letting complications arise from living on the edge. Frowning he noted that his breathing was out of alignment again. He was going to have to keep an eye on that if he was going to be on his school’s game team next trial period. Scott dried himself off and closed down the diagnostics with a tap of his icon, before tapping it again and bringing up his school uniform. A long black t shirt, black jeans, and black shoes, all of which quickly adopted his unique circuit pattern as they paired with him, his energy keeping them stable. He looked at the time and picked up his data disk, attaching it to his back.

His app list appeared on his left wrist and he tapped the icon he’d left qued up to call Isaac back.

“I’M UP, FUCK!” Isaac squealed as he ducked behind the partisan in his own bathroom hiding from the window.

“Like I haven’t seen it all before Isaac.” Scott chuckled. “I’m going to go down and load breakfast. See you in a bit.” He closed the window to give his brother peace before heading down to their kitchen. There was a low noise coming from there and when Scott turned the corner he saw the fridge was in the middle of glitching into random data again. Walking up and giving it a good hard kick, the data restored to the most stable form he’d seen in a while. “I’m going to have to see if I have the credits for a diagnostic to come out and fix this before mom sees it.” He sighed. He’d been working part time at a shop in town to earn credits for things like this. He was training to be a analytic, to look through data and spot problems for customers. Right now he was on non sentient data while his boss worked on the pixels and higher that came through the door. An alert icon appeared on his wrist and he tapped it.

“Fuck.” He muttered as he quickly scrolled through the message reminding him that today was the field trip his class was taking to the Iso city. They’d be the first people to be allowed in other then the Firewalls and Military programs that worked at the satellite office in CS1, but he was worried about the trip. The more research he did into the data pipe line that they’d be using the less he liked the idea of being compressed and transmitted via the damned thing. But it wasn’t like he had much of a choice. It was a required class in school, and he needed the scores to graduate on time. He quickly loaded a set of energy bars to process while he sat down and waited for Isaac, who came in wearing an identical outfit, his circuits completely different from Scott’s but still the same color, his curly hair giving a bit of a shift in color as the liquid energy moved through it.

“Field trip.” Scott said as he handed the finished bar to Isaac who nodded.

“You’re just hoping the thing breaks down before we get there and it gets canceled aren’t you.” Isaac gave him a grin.

“Would that be so bad?”

“You’re afraid of looking scared in front of _her_.” Isaac teased.

“Yes, okay.” Scott blushed as he fished out his own energy bar and nibbled on it.

“Then don’t look scared.” Isaac pointed out helpfully as he grinned at his brother, before heading to the door and waiting for Scott.

“Easier said then done.” Scott sighed as he got ready and walked out the door, using his palm print to encrypt the house just in case. “You have your pass key to get home after so I can go in to work and try to work up some extra credits for the fridge repairs?” He bit his lip and looked at Isaac.

“Yep.” He tapped the icon and loaded the pass to show Scott before replacing it back into his wrist.

“Good.” Scott smiled. Isaac had a habit of loosing his pass if Scott didn’t keep an eye on him, but it all worked out for the best. He’d come to them after his father was deleted in an accident leaving him both homeless and orphaned in one go. It wasn’t a question of what to do, it was a question of filing the paper work to claim him as part of their family. All of which they’d filled out before the hour was up and what little he owned was soon brought over and set up in his new room. Scott wondered sometimes if some of the lapses in Isaac’s memory was long term damage from something a lot worse that they didn’t know about in his history. But his mom had fixed what she could. All he could do was keep an eye on Isaac and make sure he wasn’t left alone for too long. It took a short amount of time for them to walk the rest of the way to the grid and soon enough they stepped foot on the grid and they felt the surge as they got logged onto the grid. They weren’t on the grid a solid minute when Scott’s wrist beeped. He tapped it and a vid window opened up for him.

“Danny.” Scott smiled.

“Hey, you almost to the transfer station?” Danny looked past him at the scenery.

“Almost... Why?”

“Lydia got tired of waiting on you, so she went out to wait for you.”

“Crap.” He sighed.

“Yeah. Alison went with her.”

“Double crap.” Scott let his shoulders slump. “The rest of the class there yet?”

“Not yet. But as soon as you get here we’ll have enough to start the first data transfer down the pipe.”

“We’ll be there soon, see you in a bit Danny.” Scott waved his hand and closed the window, grumbling to himself about Lydia.

“It could be worse.” Isaac smirked.

“How?”

“You could get transferred but not your cloths.” He laughed as he took off running, Scott following after trying to catch him. They make the turn and almost plow into Lydia and Alison in tow. Scott managed to pull up short and just missed plowing right into Alison.

“Hi...” He blushed.

“Hey.” She smiled back at him.

“And we’re walking.” Lydia pushes Alison in as Isaac and Scott dust themselves off and join them in the transfer station. Stepping on a circular platform with the others it lifts up and connects to a thin track before it lights up and the energy from the platform connects to a guided path for their platform to travel through the opening of the station out towards where the class is gathered. When they arrive they find only a fraction of the class there with one of the back up teachers standing around looking impatient.

“They sent the larger group through already.” Danny smiled.

“And you waited for us?” Isaac beamed. Danny clapped him on the shoulder.

“Always Isaac. Always.” He smiled before walking with them and the teacher to the data point. A large white glowing circular line of circuitry runs around the center of the room, at the center of the circle, in the dead center of the room’s vertical space is a pulsating bit shifting shape and form constantly.

“I so don’t like this.” Scott said under his breath.

“It’ll be okay. Dad says he’s taken this trip a dozen times with the Firewalls and it’s fine.” Alison smiled sweetly. “I was pretty worried after looking at the research to be honest.” Alison gave a blushing smile.

“So was I.” Scott sighed. “But we’ll be fine.” He smiled at her, as the circular area pulsed with light, Scott winced at the tight feeling of being slightly decompiled and compressed, but as he looked up he saw a large hulking shape of a thing crash into the room and attack the guards. Which was the last thing he saw before he was pure streaming data with no concept of time.

<<< Emergency Restart Beginning... >>>

Scott slowly opened his eyes to look up at the bare exposed outer grid of the edge of cyber space, the great unexplored regions in all directions except for the black sand he was now currently laying in. He slowly looked around. The slowly erasing fragments of a data pipe line data point all around him, dissolving into raw data.

“Wha...” Scott looked around.

“If you want to stay alive, come with me.” A boy in a black battle suit with white circuitry denoting that he was an iso, his hair low to his scalp, held out his hand to Scott. Scott took it and felt a strange sense of rightness to the other boy’s presence.

“Name’s Stiles, and you, you are in too much danger to properly calculate.” Stiles grabbed Scott’s arm and pulled him away from the slowly deleting rubble. “I could see the explosion from my look out position, and I sent people out here looking for survivors. Jacks found a few, and they kept asking about you.” He kept dragging Scott. “At least I’m assuming you’re Scott, you look like the image that Isaac was passing around.”

“Where am I?”

“You’re at the very edge of the second grid. We call it the waste land, because not much survives out this far. You’re lucky the pipe line malfunctioned this close to the grid. If you’d crashed out there in the unprocessed space you might have been deleted entirely.” Stiles dragged him over to a tree that seemed to hold a glowing white fruit in the mostly black and white landscape. He plucked one and tossed it to Scott before plucking one for himself and eating it. “Fastest way to recharge out here in the waste land.” He nodded to the fruit, and to the fact that Scott’s circuits had started to grey out from lack of energy. “We’ll be fine in a bit. Listen... Less questions and more moving I don’t want to get caught out here if I don’t have to...” Stiles started looking around.

“Caught by what?” Scott frowned looking around in the dark for something he didn’t know about out there that might be threatening them.

“That.” Stiles pointed off into the distance where a pair of red eyes were approaching them at an alarming pace, Stiles grabbed Scott and they take off running, only for Scott to fall on his face, Stiles skidded to a halt only to see the creature sink it’s fangs into Scott’s legs before another large creature plowed into it and knocked it off the edge far into the distance of the undefined space, where it seems to fall away into darkness. The other shape came back, revealing a large muscular humanoid lizard shape that rapidly reformed to a naked male program with a green circuit that seems to have an eerie yellow glow to it as he walked up. His green eyes flashing in the dark as he looked down at Scott.

“He got hit?”

“Yes Jacks. He got hit.” Stiles looked down as circuits around the bite began to turn to an electrical amber color. “Shit.” Stiles sighs. “Can you carry him till he wakes up?”

“Sure.” Jackson taps his icon and his cloths appear. Black battle cloths that quickly gain the same circuit pattern he had on his skin. “Lead the way.” Stiles nods and heads off towards the horizon.


	2. Re-coding

“Don’t worry Scotty... When have my plans ever failed... ... ... Don’t answer that...”   
  


<<< sleep mode ended >>>

  
  
“I think he’s waking up.” The voice was the same from his dream.  Scott slowly opened his eyes to see the Stiles and Jackson standing over him.  For a moment he sees a teenaged boy in an over sized hoody and a sneering jock in a jersey before his eyes clear and he sees them in iso suits.  Jackson’s denoting but his yellow green colored circuits that he’s been infected with some sort of virus.  “You okay Scott?”   
  
“Y-yeah.. I just need to get my bearings... FUCK.” He grabbed his leg where the circuitry has started to turn a red orange color and slowly spreading out from the wound where he hasn’t re-rendered his leg back from the attack.  “What was that?” Scott winced.   
  
“Lycanthrope Virus.  Not seen one risk the pipe line before.” Jackson’s eyes shifted to a reptilian green as he scanned the area.   
  
“Am I going to be like you?” Scott swallowed hard.   
  
“Nope.  Virus markings indicate Lupine strain.” Jackson examined the slow spread.   
  
“Is there anything you can do?” He looked between the pair of them.   
  
“Unfortunately, no.” Stiles sighed.  “He bit deep, and transferred enough of the code that it’s self replicating now.  We tried sterilizing it, but the code has taken hold.  Inside of a cycle you’ll be fully infected and start displaying new attributes.”   
  
“Like?” Scott knew he sounded scared.   
  
“Better vision, better hearing, better speed, more energy, more strength, and depending on the legacy code in the virus, you might get other attributes.” Jackson was being stoic for some reason.   
  
“Legacy code?” Scott winched, the pain was starting to raise in his leg as the virus spread.  Why did it have to hurt so?   
  
“Effectively it was a side effect of the coding when the lycans from the physical world wished to bring their power into this world.  It was coded... And the magic that effected them and gave them their powers and their weaknesses became a part of our world.  With in a few generations it became clear that the Legacy Code existed.  It’s a series of coding lines that tweak how one takes to the virus.” Jackson looked at him.  “I was bitten by a Lupine Lycanthrope Virus when I was young.” He pointed to his shoulder.  “We discovered that both he and I had Legacy Code.  Mine caused the bight to change me into a Kanima Virus, and his Legacy Code killed him for having bit me.  It...” He looked distant.  “It wasn’t something that one should have to endure at that age.” He finally settled on.   
  
“H-how do you know if you have a Legacy Code...?” Scott panted, his whole body felt hot now.   
  
“Seeing as the Lupine that bit you didn’t power down, but vanished into the darkness... I’d say it was pretty clear he has his own Legacy Code.” Stiles kept a steady eye on the shadows.   
  
“And I’d say it’s pretty sure that you too have your own code.” Jackson pointed to where fang marks were appearing on Scott’s side.   
  
“Fuck... Oh fuck....” Scott started panting, the burning was coming from both places now.   
  
“Crap.” Stiles leaned in and tried to study it.   
  
“I told you we shouldn’t have been out in the woods that night.” Scott muttered before blinking in confusion.   
  
“What?” Stiles frowned.   
  
“I don’t know what I’m talking about.” Scott looked lost.  “I just... I have this sense I should know the both of you... That I should...” His body went ridged with pain, his face stricken, before his entire being went limp with the distinct lack of consciousness to animate it.   
  
Slowly sometime later Scott awoke to being carried through the dark space they were in till he heard Isaac’s worried voice.   
  
“What happened?” He landed hard on his knees in the digital sand as he looked at his brother’s leg, mostly that glowing orange color now.   
  
“We were attacked by a virus.  He got bitten.” Stiles said carefully, his eyes showing that he knew that some people reacted badly to knowing even that much.   
  
“Is he going to be okay?” Isaac hadn’t stopped touching Scott while he looked at Stiles, a good sign to Stiles, it meant that Isaac wasn’t likely to abandon him.   
  
“He’ll live.  But he is going to be a virus from now on.” Stiles put a hand on Isaac’s shoulder, but he didn’t stop holding his brother.   
  
“I just want him to be alive.” Isaac hugged Scott to him closer.   
  
“Good, because he’s going to need that support.” Jackson finally spoke.  “It’s not easy when we become infected and... People abandon us.” He looked down as Stiles gave him a hug.   
  
“Let’s just say we know what it’s going to be like for him.” He gestured to Scott as they laid him down on the sand.  “Any luck contacting the out post?” He looked at another iso who was standing near the fire.  A slender woman with long blond hair shook her head.  “Damn.” Stiles sighed.  “Do you have any good news Erica?”   
  
“No signs of hostiles this close to the out post.  But we can’t be sure we’re not walking into some kind of trap since we can’t get them to answer us.”   
  
“I don’t like this.” Jackson looked at Stiles, letting his worry creep through.   
  
“I don’t like it either Jacks.” Stiles nodded.  Stiles looked at the fire, his eyes changing color as he looked at the particles fading.  “Okay, here’s the plan.  We’re going to have to break into two groups when we get with in range of the out post’s sensors, that way they think it’s a smaller group in case someone is laying a trap for us.  And the other group will wait back till they get the signal.” He looked up.  “Erica you and Jackson will stay with Scott and Isaac, and...” He gestured at part of the class.  “That way they think it’s just me and the few people I’ve found so far.  It’s standard procedure to check in periodically and if I couldn’t do that I’m supposed to take who ever I’ve found to the nearest out post before going back out looking.” Stiles looked in the direction of the out post.  “There’s a large dune just before we reach the sensor range...”   
  
“And how do you know where their sensor range ends?” Erica raised an eyebrow.   
  
“Well...” Stiles blushed.   
  
“Does this involve you and your boyfriend naked...?” Jackson sighed.   
  
“Maybe.” Stiles’ voice took a haughty tone.   
  
“okay, moving back on.  We fall back at the dune and wait for your signal.” Jackson’s face paled as he spoke in a bit of a rush.   
  
“Yep.  After that we’ll see what’s what.  If you don’t see my signal by pass that outpost, get them to safety and then come after me.  But you have to get them to safety first.” He looked Jackson in the eyes.   
  
“I’ll do my best to comply.” He crossed his arms.   
  
“Erica, I’d ask you to make sure he does, but you’re even more likely to storm in there to save me.” He reached over and squeezed her shoulder.  “Okay, we’ll head out shortly.  I need to make sure Scott’s tended to and then we’ll see that everyone’s charged up.  If we have to make it to the station after this one, there isn’t much of a charge up or a grid to work with.” Erica nodded, getting up to gather energy fruits to power everyone up while Stiles saw to Scott’s infection.   
  
“How long until it’s finished?” Scott flinched in pain.   
  
“The recode of the virus usually happens before the day cycle is up.  So sooner then you’d guess.” He inspected how high up on his leg the color change of the infection spreading had reached.  “Still burning or is it more of a tearing feeling now?”   
  
“Tearing and burning.” Scott nearly shouted through clenched teeth.   
  
“Yeah... That indicates it found something in your code that’s reacting with it.  Apparently your user was a werewolf before he got scanned.”   
  
“Great....” Scott whimpered.  Images of his user’s life flashing in his mind, his face showing pain he reached out for Stiles.  “Just make sure you don’t wreck your jeep trying to get me to the hospital.” His eyes fluttered shut.   
  
“How does he know...?” Jackson frowned.   
  
“If I had to guess, my user knew him or his mine.” Stiles comforted the boy laying partly on his lap who had passed out from the pain.  Iso’s and second city dwellers were taught early on about their users and to try to recall as much of their lives before as possible.  He’d styled his hair the same as he had when he wasn’t a binary representation of life.  And as he looked down at Scott something in him said he knew him.  Knew him from before.   
  
“That’s so random, that you’d meet now.” Erica frowned.  “I mean, he’s handsome and all... But clearly not your type.” She shrugged.   
  
“Just because he doesn’t look like...”   
  
“And so few do.” Jackson chimed in too, grinning as Stiles blushed.   
  
“Shut up.”   
  
“Oh is that an order commander?” Erica snorted.   
  
“Yes.” Stiles narrowed his eyes.   
  
“Yes sir, commander sir.” She saluted and laughed.   
  
“I can’t shake that I knew him.” Stiles said as he looked down at Scott.   
  
“You can take him to the temple later.  Right now, I think we have more pressing things to worry about.” Jackson nodded to the scared group of kids from the first city.   
  
“Right.” Stiles got up and walked amongst them.  He paused in front of a red headed girl who was comforting a dark haired girl.  “Strawberry blonde.” He said out loud.   
  
“What?”   
  
“Your hair, it’s not red, it’s Strawberry blonde and I know you.” He frowned at her.   
  
“I don’t see how that’s possible.” She looked at him, or through him, as if she had no clue who he was.   
  
“You weren’t taught to try to access the memories of your user.  I was.  We knew each other.  You were the smartest person I’d ever met... And I think I was in love with you.” He shrugged as he moved on.   
  
“Well at least your user had taste.” She shrugged.  “Did we ever get together?” She asked, turning to follow him with her eyes as he moved away.   
  
“Don’t think so.  You were with someone else...” He looked at Jackson, who was looking away.  “But didn’t stop me from trying.” He smiled.  “You were one of the first memories I ever had of my user.”   
  
“Shame we didn’t get together.  You have a really nice ass.”   
  
“Thanks, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell them for ages.” He gestured off to his team.   
  
“Sorry boss, I find you attractive, but you’re kind of attached, so I stopped looking.” Erica waved him off.   
  
“They keep talking about a boyfriend?” She raised an eyebrow.   
  
“Yeah.  My other major memory from that life.  You and my boyfriend.  Derek.  He’s a station manager and technician out here.” He smiled.   
  
“Did I know him too?”   
  
“I think so.  But it is strange that so many of us ended up not only in the same generational pools but also here today.” He frowned.   
  
“Probably just the math behind the coding system for the user uploads.”   
  
“But that’s randomly coded.”   
  
“No, it’s not.  They say it’s random because they don’t want to admit to the flaw in the primary coding scheme but if you ever look at lines 115 and 11472 you’d notice that they create a small error in line 47118172, and that resolves itself by correlating upload times and some general background info into coding our likenesses and times of coding.”   
  
“Still the smartest person in the room.” He smiled as he squeezed her shoulder and walked on.  He saw faces he recalled from glimpses and flashes.  Felt echos stirring in his code but knew he had to focus.  He nodded as he double checked how everyone was doing.  “You good to carry him Jackson?” He indicated Scott.  Jackson nodded as he picked up the unconscious would be viral agent and carried him as they broke their meager camp to follow Stiles into the digital wasteland that they were trapped in.  He guided them through to a dune that had a small stick figure sticking out of one part of it.   
  
“You marked the dune?” Erica asked, her expression and opinion clear in the tone of her voice.   
  
“Sometimes it’s dark... And sometimes we’re in a hurry... And it’s never good to be naked against the wrong dune...” He sputtered as he pointed to where they were to wait.  He kept walking as he crossed the sensor line and indicated that he was there.  He kept walking towards the station, well aware that everyone or anyone who was there knew he was coming in from the wastes.  He calculated the odds of finding Derek alive and there just being a mechanical error, or a new virus having attacked, or something worse.  He didn’t like the odds.  And the closer he got to the station the less he liked the odds.  Especially when he caught sight of part of the roof derezing from some sort of damage.  He knocked on the door once he reached it and heard shuffling and noises inside before the door opened and a weapon was pointed at his face.   
  
“Okay, I have a feeling you’ve had trouble tonight.” Stiles said with a raised eyebrow as he stepped into the light of the station.   
  
“Fuck.” Derek rushed forward, knocking the guy with the weapon back.   
  
“I take it transmitter’s down again?” Stiles asked.   
  
“More like someone sent a surge through the relay system and burned out the coms for half the fucking line.” Derek sighed, his eyes glowing as he sniffed his boyfriend.  “How about you guys?”   
  
“We found the survivors.” Stiles stuck his hand out and waved.   
  
“Why the delay?” Derek frowned.   
  
“Couldn’t get any word from you, figured I’d go in first, if it was compromised, they’d run along and get help and I’d just deal with what ever was here.” Stiles shrugged.   
  
“One of these days, you’re going to run head first into something you can’t think your way out of.” Derek leaned his forehead against Stiles’.   
  
“I make it to that day, and I’d better be getting joined.” Stiles grinned.   
  
“Let’s not start that again.” Derek blushed.   
  
“Yes, let’s not.” Erica shoved past.  “I have it all planned out and saved to a bit back home.  You’ll love it.  It’s all planned out and everything’s arranged you just have to tell me the date.” She went straight to the drink and downed the steaming cup of energy down.  “Fuck do I miss the grid when I’m off it.” She smiled.   
  
“I’m sorry, you planed my joining?” Stiles arched a brow.   
  
“Yep, ever since you met this one.” She waved her hand that wasn’t clutching the mug at Derek.  “Knew it was bound to come up.  So I planned it out all out.  And if you’re good maybe I’ll let you look at it before the big day.”   
  
“I would like to have some say in my joining.” Stiles frowned.   
  
“Aw, isn’t that cute.  You think either of you gets a say in my plans.” She grinned wickedly around the mug.  “Now, please for the love of the grid, tell me you have a transport and that it’s working.”   
  
“Round back, fully rezzed and charged.” Derek grinned.   
  
“This is not over young lady.”   
  
“Yeah, yeah....” She waved him off as she took the code key and went out to pick out a transport and get everyone loaded.   
  
“Can you believe...” Stiles was cut short as Derek’s lips crushed into his.  When they finally came apart to grin at one another Stiles seemed a little lost.  “I was saying something.”   
  
“You’re always saying something.”   
  
“But I had a point.  I know I did.”   
  
“And I’m sure it was a very lovely point too.”   
  
“The best one ever.” Stiles blushed a little before kissing Derek one last time.   
  
“I’m off shift anyways, I’ll come with you lot back to town.  Any trouble out there?”   
  
“I’m glad you’re coming with us.” Stiles leaned against his boyfriend.  “We had one get bitten by a virus.  He’ll be a wolf before the night’s up.  Same virus that took out the relay.  The damned thing chased them into the relay and took it out to get at Scott.”   
  
“Scott... Describe him?” Derek frowned.   
  
“A little taller then me, tan skin, mop of black curly locks, and what?” Stiles stopped noticing Derek’s face.   
  
“Scott.  Scott is here?” Derek’s eyes went a glowing molten amber.   
  
“Do you know him?” Stiles frowned.   
  
“We both did.” Derek took a hold of Stiles’ hand and dragged him out to the transports where they were loading everyone.  Jackson was still holding Scott.  “Fuck.” Derek stopped as he looked at him.   
  
“I thought I knew him... I mean.. I thought...”   
  
“He was your best friend Stiles.  The pair of you were like brothers.  I thought maybe he didn’t get coded, maybe none of them were coded yet.... I...” He stopped as he looked at the faces in the back of the transport, looking at each of the faces he knew from his user’s life.  The life of Derek Hale.  He stopped talking and just watched them as they looked at him.   “Oh.” His arms fell to his side.   
  
“Oh?” Stiles frowned.  “Oh what?”   
  
“It looks like we’re all back together....” Derek’s voice was still as he pulled Stiles around to the front and put him in the cab, then got in after him and let Erica start it up and drive with everyone safely inside.   
  
“What do you mean back together?”   
  
“That class back there of programs represents almost all of your user’s friends and people you used to trust with your life.  And I just sort of thought... I got lucky finding you... That maybe we were alone.  And then we found Jacks and Erica and it just... I...” He sighed.  “Doesn’t matter what I thought.  We’re back together.  Which means someone must have wanted it.”   
  
“What do you mean someone wanted it?  They were coded in the first city, and us all out here in the second.  The chances of us meeting are....”   
  
“Better then you’d think when you throw in fate.” Derek said somberly before stilling into silence.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think. I don’t know how soon I’ll get back to this.


End file.
